


coin toss

by CinderScoria



Category: Video Blogging RPF, escape the night - Fandom
Genre: Gen, I'm all kinds of caught up in my feelings god DAMN it, Nikita and Matt have a fight, You're Welcome, anyway let my brotp sail pls, episode tag for s3e7, for Nikita stans but also for Matpat stans, look what you made me do, so it's a bit different than how it happens in-episode but also fight me, so spoilers through that obviously, then they come to an understanding, this is basically The Fight but written in a way that Makes Sense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 10:05:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinderScoria/pseuds/CinderScoria
Summary: There's a very real moment when Nikita thinks she killed her best friend.





	coin toss

**Author's Note:**

> (I'm rooting for it to be Matt and Nikita and that should really tell you all you need to know about me lmao)

The candle slides into place and the elation that sweeps through Nikita lasts all of two seconds before she remembers what that means.

_ Manny. _

She stops in her tracks, staring at the sideways wall. It’s like the breath has been shoved from her lungs. Like the world froze in place. If she stays here, in this second, then nothing happens, right? Manny stays safe? If she doesn’t move, and pretends they’re stuck in time, is he allowed to live?

He’s in the other room, and she hears him chuckle ruefully under his breath. “Manny, I’m sorry!” she calls, and it’s not enough, it’s not nearly enough. She thought she was okay with this, but she isn’t. She isn’t.

It could happen any second now. Nikita drops to her knees, places both hands over her ears. She doesn’t want to hear him scream. Tears sting in her eyes, spill out onto her cheeks, and if she’d been in her right mind she’d be concerned about her makeup running (she’s pretty sure she remembered to seal it), but all she can think of now is how the hell she’s supposed to do this without her best friend, her partner in crime, by her side. Even if she lives through the night, even if she ends up escaping, how the hell is she supposed to go on? What is she supposed to tell Laura and Gabriel?

“Nikita, honey,” and she looks up to see Manny kneeling in front of her, smiling an awful smile while his eyes glitter with tears. And damn it all, there’s no one here to see this but the dead man walking that she loves very much. Nikita is in his arms before she even really knows what she’s doing, falling apart completely as he curls around her, placing his chin on top of her head as she cries, sputtering apologies that don’t make any sense. He should be upset with her, why isn’t he upset with her?

If she holds him hard enough, they can’t take him, she thinks. If she just refuses to let him go—

_ “We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!” _ It’s Willy’s Happy Voice, over the intercom. _ “Both of you exit the room and claim your prize!” _

“No.” Her grip tightens, and Manny sighs.

“These are the rules, Nikita,” he says gently into her hair. “I lost, fair and square. Hey.” He smiles that same smile, the one that says he’s happy for her, and Nikita feels sick. “It’s okay.”

It’s not. There is no reality in existence where this could possibly be okay. Nikita doesn’t let go as Manny guides them up and into the elevator. Her tears stop but her eyes stays hard, jaw clenched, face etched in stone. Maybe she can fight the monster. He doesn’t look so tough. Sure, he has a fish hook or whatever, but she has claws. And by God, does she want to use them.

There’s a box with a light bulb and a note hanging in front of them as they exit the funhouse. Nikita ignores it, surveying the terrain for Willy. Manny reads the note, then sucks in a breath.

“What?”

His dark eyes scan the rest of the note, then he grabs the box and her hand and starts sprinting back towards the arcade.

Nikita squashes the hope rising in her chest. “Manny, what the hell? What’s going on?”

“We get to live,” he gasps out. “But that means one of the others—”

_ Shit. _

“Ro or Safiya,” he says. “One of the two who voted us in.”

No. Oh no. Nikita clings to his hand as they run, unsure if the emotion climbing her throat is relief or grief or both. They need Safiya, and Ro is the purest soul they have. If one of them dies—but she has Manny back. She has Manny back, at least for another second, and he’s pulling her by the hand as they race back to stop what she already knows can’t be stopped. He’s alive, and she’s alive, and—

And Safiya is not. They stop in the center of the room, and everyone crowded around Safiya’s body looks up. Joey looks lost for the first time since this thing started. Ro has fat tears rolling down her face. And Matt… 

“Why is she dead?” Joey’s voice cracks, tearing Nikita’s gaze from Matt’s stricken expression.

Nikita takes a step back from the sheer grief radiating from Joey in raw waves. She tosses a look at Manny. “The note…” 

Manny swallows. “The note said that whoever voted the winner of the challenge in was going to die.” His eyes fall on Safiya. “And Nikita won.”

“The  _ winner _ of the challenge?” Joey echoes. “So, Manny—”

“It should’ve been you.”

They all look to Matt. His voice is pitched low, lower than they’ve ever heard it. Nikita’s hackles rise before she even fully registers his words. Matt looks  _ dangerous. _

Manny stills.  _ “Excuse _ me?”

“You lost, didn’t you? So it should’ve been you.” His hands tremble. He doesn’t seem to realize that his fingers are still pressed to Safiya’s neck, searching for a pulse he’ll never find. Instead, his eyes—hidden, but not well enough, behind the yellow-tinted sunglasses—are on Manny and only Manny as he rises from his half-crouched position.

_ Oh hell no. _ Nikita steps in front, halting Matt’s advance in its tracks. “Safiya’s death is not his fault,” she snarls, words she doesn't care to think about spilling from her lips.  _ “Safiya _ voted  _ me _ in, she got what she deserved. In fact I’m glad she’s dead—”

_ “Shut up!” _

Nikita jumps at the scream torn from his throat. She feels Manny’s steady hand at her back and tries to calm her racing heart as Matt sinks back to the floor. “Safiya died! Why don’t you care!”

_ Because it was almost Manny. _ It’s on the tip of her tongue, but she stops before she says it. She stops because she looks at Matt, really looks at him, and doesn’t just see grief on his face. She sees raw, unadulterated fear. Fear of what? She knows he’s experienced death before, and has every right to be terrified it—his traumatized state of mind when he first got back was a big enough indicator of that—but he hadn’t been in any danger. The only ones who could’ve died were Safiya and… and Ro.

_ Oh. _

It was almost Manny. But it was also almost Ro. There was a coin toss’s chance it could have been Ro.

Matt must see something in her face, too, because he backs down. His hand leaves Safiya’s neck. He climbs to his feet to pace a short ways away, worrying his hair as he struggles to get his emotions back under control.

“Everybody stop fighting,” Joey commands, still a bit shaky from the turn of events. “That’s exactly what they want us to do. They want us to be against each other. We  _ need _ to come together if we're gonna survive.”

Nikita is still shaking from her revelation. Manny holds up the box with the light bulb in it. “Well, we can cleanse the artifact now,” he offers.

Joey agrees, and the two of them work to fit the light bulb to the artifact.

Ro’s attention is elsewhere. “Matt?” she calls gently.

Matt turns from where he's retreated to the back. His arms are crossed tight over his chest, like he's trying to hold himself together. The look he gives Ro is agonized, like he's on the verge of quitting. Then he looks to Nikita. She catches her breath.

He's sad. He's just sad. And it's naked across his face, in a way that translates universally as he finally comes to terms with the fact that he can do everything right and still not be able to save her. And it's not fair, but it's the way it is. Nikita had accepted it a long time ago. It just took Matt a little longer to catch up.

It's a searching gaze that he gives Nikita, as if he's asking for permission, or forgiveness, or advice. Manny slips his hand into hers again, not understanding the silent conversation the two were having, but offering support the best way he can.

Nikita gets the feeling she and Matt need to have a talk, when they have a second. But they don't have a second. So instead she just nods at him, telling him he's forgiven for his outburst. She gets it. They've both just realized how goddamn close they came to losing the person they cared most about in this hellish nightmare.

Matt breathes out slow, and then nods once to himself. “Okay,” he says quietly, giving Safiya one last long, sad look, before squaring his shoulders. “Let's find the next clue.”

 


End file.
